The present invention relates to a checkout terminal, to a goods recording device for a checkout terminal, and to a method for operating a checkout terminal.
Checkout terminals are used, for example, in stores selling goods where a customer, as part of a purchase process, initially assembles some goods and, for the purpose of payment, he looks for a checkout terminal where the goods of the customer are received, their data are recorded and the goods are then dispensed again to the customer. On the basis of the recording of the data of the goods, a final price can be determined which has to be paid by the customer for his goods. Checkout terminals can be operated by a service person or operate autonomously (so-called self-service checkout terminals).
A generic checkout terminal has a goods receiving area for receiving goods, a goods recording area following the goods receiving area for recording the data of the goods, and a goods dispensing area following the goods recording area for dispensing the goods, the data of which have been recorded, to the customer.
The goods dispensing area of a generic checkout terminal has a first packing trough which is configured for temporarily collecting the goods, the data of which have been recorded. In the first packing trough the goods are collected so that the customer can remove them from the goods dispensing area and, for example, reload them into a bag of his own.
A goods transport means is provided for transporting the goods from the goods receiving area toward the first packing trough of the goods dispensing area over the goods recording area along a direction of transport.
A control unit configured for this purpose usually controls the operation of the checkout terminal, for example the transport of the goods carried out by the goods transport means.
Furthermore, the generic checkout terminal has a goods recording device having a scanner, arranged in the goods recording area, the scanner being configured for scanning a respective scannable identifier of the goods located within a goods recording volume of the goods recording area and for providing a scanning result signal s.
A generic checkout terminal is known, for example, from WO 2013/120 875 A2.
The capacity volume of the first packing trough is restricted so that the first packing trough can only accept a particular quantity of goods. In the case of the previously known checkout terminal, it is disadvantageous that the first packing trough can be overfilled.